


i'm the same, i've just been rearranged

by judypoovey



Series: all i wanted would become everything i ever loved [2]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Juvenile Delinquents Jyn & Bodhi, Multi, all ships are mostly minor, one brooklyn 99 joke to find, sibling Jyn & Bodhi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 19:19:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9086542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/judypoovey/pseuds/judypoovey
Summary: When Jyn Erso gets released from Juvie, she knows she'll be reunited with her brothers Bodhi and Baze. She just doesn't realize how weird adjusting to her new life is going to be at first.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Bodhi and Jyn as adopted siblings gives me so much life. Also, if you want an accurate mental picture of human K-2so, he's basically Lucas from Stranger Things, but like, taller. If anyone wants to draw fanart of that, I'll be forever indebted to them. The title is from a Foster the People song. Also find me on tumblr! http://bodhijyns.tumblr.com

Jyn Erso was six years old when her mother died. She remembered little of it – just that one day, Lyra Erso had been there, and the next day, she was gone. All she had was a necklace.

Her memory was the same of life before Bodhi Rook. One day, she did not have a brother, and the next day, a brother had materialized. From that day on, Jyn Erso had never counted herself alone, because Bodhi would always be beside her.

Those were the two constants in her life. Lyra was gone, Bodhi was there.

Galen Erso and Saw Gerrera, the two men who served as father to the two siblings in varying degrees, were revolving doors. They were not constant, and Jyn tried hard not to resent them for it.

When Jyn had gone to jail – excuse her, juvenile correctional detainment, or whatever – Bodhi had written and visited as much as he could, being only sixteen and not having his own car, nor a steady parental figure to provide one. Baze did what he could to accommodate, as the surrogate brother and therefore de facto authority figure, but he had a life outside of chauffeuring Bodhi around.

Jyn had been a bad kid, and she knew it. She was fine with it. She and Bodhi had been bad in their own unique ways and she’d just had the misfortune of getting caught, and not ratting her brother out about where she’d gotten the stolen credit card and fake ID. Individually, her crimes were petty, but the assault and the fraud culminated in a trial and a charge and there she was.

She was being released, now seventeen and verging on eighteen. She had vowed to her father, Galen, on his single visit (he was an aerospace engineer and frequently not on Earth) that she would get her life together when she was released. She promised she would put Bodhi on a good path too, because she didn’t know for sure if he was still gambling and scamming (strictly speaking, not smart to talk about in jail), but she knew that they needed to stop.

All the hoops were appropriately jumped through, and she was greeted by her brothers at the gate. Her single bag of belongings dangled off her shoulder as she was swept up into a long overdue hug. She had missed them both.

Saw Gerrera was still absent, as she expected. She missed him terribly, but she knew he missed her too, and that provided some cold comfort.

Baze’s apartment was a warzone, just like she remembered. A year and a half away and it was the same level of cluttered and disorganized.

She and Bodhi had shared a room in this apartment for the brief few months she had lived there before being incarcerated, and she wanted to cry when she saw that Bodhi had kept the bunkbeds, an ironic joke between two moody teenagers being shunted across the country. The top bunk had been preserved for Jyn.

She hugged her brother again after dropping her bag on the floor.

“Welcome home,” he said, petting her hair.

\--

Jyn set about making herself busy after a few days of adjustment (aka sleeping in a comfy bed and eating when she felt like it). Bodhi was at school most days, but Baze bought her a phone and it was easy to stay in touch, so she didn’t feel the ache of his absence as keenly as she had in juvie.

She started looking for a job, studying to get her GED, and cleaning their apartment (it needed it). She had gotten used to a regimented sort of order, and got the last of it out of her system by folding up a lot of wrinkled laundry and vacuuming.

Baze was some kind of security guard. Much like Saw’s “job”, the fewer questions they asked, the better off they were. He worked weird hours, and Jyn didn’t see a lot of him her first few weeks home.

Bodhi was home most nights, doing his homework and spending time catching up with her. She was glad to have it. “You should come to a party on campus with me and my friends,” he said when he came home one Friday. “It’ll be fun.”

“Oh, okay,” she said, looking a little alarmed. She hadn’t been in a social situation in so long, she was almost afraid of the idea. But she wanted to be with Bodhi, and she knew he would understand. They had always protected each other; he could have her back at a stupid college party. “What should I…wear?” she asked.

She had all of three outfits. The clothes that had been lovingly kept for her were from her 15-year-old goth phase and while some of it still fit, she had grown (Yes, she had grown, Bodhi. Just because she wasn’t a giant didn’t mean she hadn’t) and most of it was now too small.

“It’s outside and it’s gonna be hot tonight, so maybe shorts,” he said, knowing good and well that Jyn Erso did not wear shorts. At least not willingly.

“I’ll get Baze to drop me off at the mall, I guess,” she said, mostly to herself. She was shocked when Bodhi handed her a folded hundred-dollar bill.

“Use that,” he said, avoiding her eye.

“Where did you get this?” she demanded, knowing that he didn’t have a job. He was in his first semester of college and Baze did not freely give them money like that. In fact, she wasn’t really sure Baze had money at all. Certainly, he did. But she wasn’t sure, because she had never asked, nor had he ever volunteered the information.

She took the money and said a quiet prayer that Bodhi wasn’t getting himself into trouble. They had promised Galen they wouldn’t anymore.

\--

The urge to shoplift plagued her from the moment she walked in to the store to the moment she left, purchases in hand. It wasn’t about money anymore, it was simply muscle memory. Once upon a time, it had been a necessity. Clothes and food quietly pocketed to supplement what they had at home (which was little). It stopped being a necessity and started being a challenge and a hobby.

Now, it was a bad habit she had to shake.

She had gotten herself a few things, new shoes, a pair of jeans, a couple of shirts. Nothing fancy, because fancy wasn’t her taste. Baze picked her up looking a little more sour than usual.

“What’s up?”

“New neighbors,” he said, and she understood the vaguery. Apparently, they were the irritating sort of neighbors. Hopefully not like the people they had lived next to when she was twelve, who tried to kidnap their cat.

She nodded. She didn’t need many words with Baze, and she was glad, because she didn’t generally like talking to people. They were on the same wavelength, they always had been.

When they got home, she set about washing her new shirts so they would be ready for the party that night, and cobbled together a sandwich for herself as she filled out another waitressing job application. Their apartment opened up into a private courtyard, with big windows meant to showcase the nice plants and shit in the area, but the downside was the other two apartments facing the courtyard also had huge windows, and that meant being awkwardly intimate with the neighbors.

Baze had huge thick curtains that obscured this flaw, but they were open today to let in light (they used electricity as little as possible, a habit born of poverty), and Jyn thought she could see the problem Baze had with the new neighbors.

Well, she could certainly see something, but couldn’t see how it could ever be constrained as a problem, because their neighbor seemed to be allergic to shirts, and he was making Jyn feel really shitty about her own work out habits.

“Seriously?” Baze muttered when he saw what had drawn Jyn’s attention.

Another guy had wandered into the view of the window, maybe around Bodhi’s age, looking exasperated. He pointed to the window and handed a shirt to the mystery neighbor.

“I don’t see your complaint,” she joked.

“He’s doing it to mess with me,” was all he said. She wasn’t sure how he had jumped to that conclusion, but clearly the situation was nuanced.

\--

Bodhi came back home to fetch Jyn before the party. It was pretty warm outside, but she stubbornly refused to wear shorts. Jeans and a tank top would suffice, she was sure. Baze was at work, and would be until morning, so they didn’t bother to leave a note, they just took the bus back to the school.

“My friends are pretty excited to meet you,” he said.

She felt her face heat up. “You told them about me…?” It was both flattering and a little mortifying. Bodhi and his criminal sister. Great.

“Yeah of course. You’re my sister.”

Jyn would brag to anyone about Bodhi when asked, about how smart he was, and how he was going to be an engineer, and all that stuff. She felt odd at the thought that Bodhi had found anything worth saying about her. She was just a locked-up thief with anger problems. Instead of vocalizing any of this, she wrapped an arm around his waist and hid her embarrassment in the back of his shirt.

The party was more low-key than teen movies would have had Jyn believe. It was just a few dozen people piled into a house, with a keg in the middle of the floor, and loud music playing. People were smiling and happy, all at ease.

A couple of people greeted Bodhi when he walked in, and he smiled at them and continued through the house. Jyn followed. In the kitchen, a few more people were gathered, and this seemed to be the friends Bodhi was intent on joining. He did that half-hug-half-slap greeting all men did.

“This is my sister, Jyn,” he said. “Jyn, this is Cassian Andor.”

Bodhi’s friend turned around and met her eye.

“Hey, I saw you,” she said without thinking. “You’re our neighbor, aren’t you?” He was indeed the young man who she had seen in the other apartment. “With your…dad?”

He made a vague hand gesture. “Dad implies a level of responsibility that is decidedly absent,” he said, laughing. “It’s nice to properly meet you.” They shook hands. Bodhi beamed.

“Didn’t bring Kay?” he asked Cassian.

“A little too young for his first college party,” he said. Then he turned to Jyn. “Kay is my brother, he’s fifteen, but he started university very young.”

Jyn felt self-conscious about her seventeen years (and lack of high school diploma), but said nothing, as she was prone to doing. Bodhi gave her a beer, and she took it. She wasn’t much for beer, but she would rather find a way to relax. If she got caught, she knew she would be in trouble, but she had always been good at a quick escape. One wouldn’t kill anyone, it wasn’t exactly a raging call-the-cops type of party.

A girl caught her attention – one of the few at the party, she noticed – and she was roped into small talk. The girl was about her age, and very pretty, with elaborately done brown hair. Her name was Leia, and she was nicer than anyone that Jyn had ever met that wasn’t family.

“How do you know Bodhi?” she asked.

“Oh, he’s my brother,” Jyn explained.

“Cool. He’s in my literature class,” she said. “I’ve got a brother too, but he’s at work tonight.”

“Older, like Bodhi?” Jyn had never really thought of Bodhi as her older brother, but now at the party, their difference of age felt pronounced. He was playing drinking games and laughing with his friend, and she felt like a little kid.

“No, twins, actually,” she said.

“That’s really cool.”

Leia nodded. “I was pretty lucky to get off work, we’re really understaffed right now,” she said. “I haven’t had a Friday in ages.”

“Where do you work?” she asked, just making conversation, but also mildly interested in a place that hired girls her age and needed help.

“It’s called the Cantina. It’s an all-night diner. Nothing special. Oh, hey! You should apply. Waitressing is crap.” She paused. “I shouldn’t have assumed you were unemployed, I have no idea why –”

“It’s fine, I _am_ unemployed,” Jyn said, kind of laughing at it. “I might stop in. Will you be around there tomorrow so if I come in I don’t feel like a total tool?”

Leia nodded, enthusiastic. “I’ll be there for the lunch shift. See you then?”

They shook on it, and a loud barrage of cheers erupted from the other room. They both went to investigate, and Jyn found her brother on the table, a beer in his hand, proclaiming some kind of victory. He had cards in his hands.

She tried to quell the irritation in her stomach. Bodhi was a gambler. He had always been like that, and she should have known. His opponents were paying up. Cassian was watching quietly, but visibly egging the increasingly drunk people into another game they would surely lose.

“What are you doing?” she asked Cassian, trying very hard not to sound hostile, and failing. He did not react to her hostility.

“Poker,” he said, as if it were so very obvious. “We kick ass at poker.”

Jyn scowled, waiting for Bodhi to finish his next game before pulling him out under the guise of a cigarette. “What are you doing?”

“Playing poker. It’s _fun_.”

“You’re not supposed to be scamming people anymore, we promised dad,” she said in a lower voice.

“Dad’s not here,” he said. “And it’s not a scam, they choose to play. The smart ones quit after one loss.”

Jyn’s nostrils flared. “You think I didn’t see Cassian giving them all booze so they’ll be more willing to keep going?” she asked. “Or goading more people into playing?” She snatched his drink from his hands and found it was just water. Bodhi was pretending to drink. She knew the trick; you stay sober, they get drunk, they’re easier to rob.

“It’s above board, Jyn, stop lecturing me,” he said. “It’s not like I’m pickpocketing them.”

“Anymore.”

“Don’t be like that. Have fun! Make friends!” His voice was getting a little loud, taking on that pitch that indicated that a panic attack was on the horizon if they didn’t back down. “It’s just a game.”

Jyn wanted to believe him, but didn’t. And she didn’t want him to have an anxiety attack, so she couldn’t keep yelling. Instead, she cast a surly look at Cassian as he lingered awkwardly a few feet away, and then stormed out of the party, wanting nothing more than to be alone, even though an hour ago she would have told you that after so long apart, she couldn’t bear to be separated from her brother.

Bodhi called after her, but didn’t follow.

\--

Jyn Erso was not much of a crier, but she fought back tears the whole bus ride, more frustrated and angry than hurt. She had promised Galen, and more importantly, promised herself, that they would be better. When Bodhi went to college, she thought that was a new start for him. Galen had saved enough money to pay for it without an abundance of debt; his one real contribution to their lives in the past ten years.

But now he had friends that egged on his worst qualities, the things that had gotten them in so much trouble and caused Saw and Galen and Baze and everyone so much grief in the past. Maybe part of it, though a part she didn’t want to admit to, was that she was hurt at the thought that she had been left behind by her brother.

When she got to the apartment building, she slammed the gate, an unnecessary but satisfying bit of pettiness.

“Bad night?” someone asked, and she jumped at the sound. Their neighbor was lounging on a bench in the courtyard, half-obscured by shadows, though wearing a shirt this time. He laughed.

“Do you like lurking in the shadows and looking like a weirdo?” she snapped, her voice uncomfortably strained.

“It all looks the same to me,” he said, shrugging dismissively, and Jyn realized that she was talking to a blind man, feeling ridiculous and insensitive. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Yes, I’m having a bad night,” she said, getting a mixed bag of vibes from the man before her. She didn’t think it would be right to unload her resentment towards Cassian on him, as it had built up over the bus ride and now it was all that was on her mind. Cassian was someone to him, so she shut up.

“You’re the across the courtyard girl, right?”

“How did you know that?” she asked. She finally relented and took a seat down next to him.

“I’m magic,” he said, deadpan. “I recognized your voice,” he amended. “I can tell you your fortune if you give me that necklace.”

Her hand immediately shot up to the Kyber necklace her mother had given her. “Hear my necklace, too?”

“Man, that was just a guess. I really am good at this,” he said. She internally groaned; another crook. A genial, good-natured conman, but still a conman.

“How accurate would my fortune be?”

“Well, you wouldn’t know until you got there, would you?”

Her frustrated tears had completely retreated, and she managed to crack a smile. “My name’s Jyn,” she said.

“Chirrut.” He smiled at her, too, crooked and unselfconscious. “I hope your night gets better. Don’t take whatever Cassian did to heart, he means well,” he said. With that, he got up and left the courtyard, leaving Jyn to quietly contemplate how he knew that. She had met plenty of people who were good at cold reading anyone they spoke to, but most of them relied on visual cues.

She didn’t expect her new life would be boring, at least.

\--

She met up with Leia at the diner the next morning, having ignored Bodhi as she got ready. He was sufficiently hungover, so she didn’t think it was registering. The silent treatment would continue until Bodhi apologized, or she forgot about it, she guessed.

The job was easy to get, even though she admitted her background check might not be great. The man, Mr. Kenobi, interviewing her shrugged. “Half the kitchen is staffed by felons, no reason to turn you away,” he said. “Welcome aboard.”

She ate a sandwich, on the house, and thanked Leia with a generous tip and a note with her number on it. Leia seemed like the only person she’d met since she’d gotten out that had her shit together, so clearly, they needed to be friends.

\--

Returning home, she found Bodhi and Baze eating a very late breakfast together. She greeted the brother she liked with a hug. “I got a job,” she said. “Nothing great, just waitressing at an all-night diner.”

They both congratulated her heartily, and she felt a small pang of guilt at ignoring Bodhi. But she fixed her coffee and kept to it, munching on leftover bacon, and loading the dishwasher.

After eating, she took a quick shower and returned to her room to borrow Bodhi’s computer for a few minutes. He was sitting on his bed, playing with his phone, and looked up hopefully, until Jyn didn’t speak. His eyes fell back to the screen and he sighed.

She ignored it.

“I’m sorry, okay,” he said, almost under his breath. “I don’t want you to get in trouble again.”

“It’s not about me getting in trouble,” she said, not turning around to acknowledge him. “You’ll have it way worse than I ever did, and you know it.” This was a thought she’d had so many times, not as though she were some kind of martyr for her brother’s freedom, but as a simple fact of their shared life.

“We’re really careful. Not doing anything illegal,” he insisted. “It’s just a game for some extra cash.”

She sighed. “It’s still scamming people. What if you get hurt?”

“We’ve all done worse.” He was right, and she could hear the frustration in his voice. “You can’t just choose to go straight after so many years and then act better than people who take longer to adjust.”

Jyn wondered if that’s truly how it had been, and her shoulders slumped as she finally turned to face her brother. “I’m just trying to protect you, I’m sorry.”

“I love you. But I’m the big brother. I don’t need protection.”

“Those are famous last words if I’ve ever heard them,” she said, but the tension had dissipated between the two of them, and they both started to laugh.

\--

Her waitressing job paid her so little that she had an even more intimate understanding of crime after her first paycheck arrived. The camaraderie in the place, however, made up for the bad pay and grumpy customers. Jyn was not a social animal, but she appreciated their smiles and laughs from an appropriate distance, joining in with the occasional mean comment or stupid joke.

It was always dead around 2 PM, so she was rolling silverware into napkins and watching traffic. Leia would be there to relieve her at 3, and she couldn’t wait to get out and go about the rest of her day. As she stared out the window, the monotony of rolling silverware shorting the circuits in her brain, she caught sight of her brother, with Cassian and a tall, lanky teenager she assumed was Cassian’s brother.

They were laughing and talking as they walked down the street. They looked happy, and she wondered maybe if she’d been too harsh on Cassian. When she got off work, they were still nearby, and she joined them to catch the bus back home.

“This is my brother, Kay,” Cassian said, introducing her to his tall, lanky brother. He was younger than all of them, but already taller, which frustrated Jyn. She was so tired of being the shortest person around.

“Hello.”

“Hey,” she replied. “I’m Jyn.”

“I know who you are. Bodhi’s told me.” His voice seemed perpetually on the verge of sarcasm, and Jyn couldn’t tell if she liked him or hated him. He was just a kid, though, so she tempered her opinions.

They got back to the apartments and Cassian slowed his pace to stand next to Jyn.

“Can we talk privately?” he asked, waving off their curious brothers.

“Sure,” she said, guarding herself against what she was sure was going to be a lecture about letting Bodhi do what he pleased and not acting like a ridiculous nag.

“I made a bad impression,” he said, taking her completely by surprise.

“You did,” she agreed, trying to remain strong. Unfortunately, Cassian had the gift of being incredibly good looking, so as she stared at him, trying to muster anger, it was mingled with something unfortunately softer. “I’m just looking out for Bodhi.”

“I know. I’m trying to look out for Kay like that now and it’s hard. We got started with it because we needed the money, it wasn’t honest but it was necessary. Bodhi always wants to help.”

Jyn was overwhelmed with fondness for her brother in that moment. “I know how he is. Just, please, be careful. He’s not worth much in a fight.”

Cassian laughed at that. “Trust me, I know. It’s like a spider on roller-skates.”

They shared a smile, and joined Kay and Bodhi inside. Bodhi looked suspicious, and Kay simply looked like he didn’t want to be around them for a second longer, staring at his phone with all the ennui only a fifteen-year-old could muster.

\--

 

Baze’s mood was dark the next day when she got home from work. Bodhi was in the living room watching something on TV, reading a book for class. Baze was grumbling under his breath, and she shot him a weird look.

“What’s his deal?” she asked Bodhi.

“He just wants to bone our neighbor,” Bodhi replied, loud enough for Baze to hear from the kitchen.

Jyn looked alarmed as Baze, loudly sputtered, stomped over.

“Bone?” he repeated, incredulous. “Bodhi Rook! I…are you…I am the adult in this house,” he said, shaking his head and walking away. They thought that was the end of it, until ten minutes later when he came back. “I do not want to _bone_ the _neighbor_ ,” he insisted, slamming his bedroom door.

Bodhi started laughing, and Jyn was covering her face trying to keep it together.

Baze disappeared to get ready to leave for work. They got through two episodes of Bojack Horseman before he came back, still apparently sore from Bodhi’s joke. “Bone?!” he nearly yelled, slamming the door behind him and leaving.

They both dissolved into a loud fit of laughter, and Bodhi posted the whole thing to his Snapchat story.

“It’s been a while since he got any,” Bodhi explained once they caught their breath. “I think he’s a little pent up.”

They immediately went to work trying to fix that.

\--

Jyn had known her birthday was soon, but when Bodhi showed her that it was underlined and starred on his desk calendar, she realized it was only a week away.

Thus, the birthday potluck was born. Not out of any investment on Jyn’s part to celebrate her birthday, but because Bodhi and Jyn agreed that if they got Baze and Chirrut in the same room, Baze would stop glaring at the window like it had wronged him and maybe be in a better mood.

Or it would go terrible. There was always a chance.

Also, Jyn really liked food.

She invited Leia and her brother, who she still hadn’t met, Cassian and Kay and Chirrut, obviously Bodhi and Baze, and that was about it. She didn’t have many friends, and she liked it that way. Having spent her last two birthdays in a juvenile detention facility, she was kind of excited for a real cake.

Thursday was the best day for everyone. Everyone was going to bring food. Baze promised a cake, and Jyn was going to hold him to that.  She and Bodhi were going to cook a casserole that Galen had long ago taught them, if they could remember it. Neither of them were strong in the domestic area, but it couldn’t be that hard.

\--

Their casserole had exploded, so they were the only two people without an offering for their grand feast. Cassian and Kay brought pizza, Chirrut brought something apparently vegetarian that everyone was slightly mistrustful of, and Leia brought a huge bag of chips and two containers of dip. Baze provided a cake, as promised. It said “Happy Birthday, Little Sister” on it, and Jyn pretended not to be touched.

She didn’t want gifts, so she was a little appalled when a stack of them had appeared in the living room while she was at work, and more appalled when Leia brought a hastily wrapped box with her.

“I didn’t want anything,” she insisted, her face a little red.

“You never do,” Bodhi finished for her. “But it doesn’t matter. You deserve it.”

Everyone was happy to mill around and eat, and she converged with Cassian, Kay and Bodhi a few minutes after everyone had arrived. Leia’s brother looked much like her; brown hair, brown eyes. He seemed a little shy, but nice.

“So, we know that Baze wants to hook up with Chirrut,” Bodhi said. “Now that they’re in close quarters, they won’t be able to resist. We can just eat cake and watch it unfold.”

Cassian was laughing. Chirrut currently was doing his “blind fortune teller” shtick for Luke, who was delighted. They had started talking about the Force, which was prompting a prolonged set of eye rolls from Baze, who was in the corner eating half a pizza by himself.

“He doesn’t believe me,” Chirrut said, not looking at Baze but pointing at him. “Which is fine. But you don’t have to be so loud about it.”

Baze rolled his eyes. “I didn’t _say_ anything.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t hear you. I’m blind, not deaf.”

Leia extracted her brother from the impending duel. He got very quiet when he joined them in the living room, casting awkward looks at Bodhi and trying to talk to his sister.

Jyn met Leia’s eye, then she looked at Bodhi, determinedly not looking at Luke, just talking to Kay about some complex math equation you could win money for solving.

Somehow a fight about spirituality and the metaphysical had broken out in their kitchen. Jyn slinked in and rescued her cake as Chirrut exasperatedly muttered ‘I am one with the Force’ to himself, as if asking some greater power to save him from Baze’s skepticism.

With a bunch of forks in hand, they didn’t bother to cut the cake, they just started eating it right out of the plastic.

“I don’t think they’re going to bone,” Cassian offered, looking a little disappointed.

Jyn scooted closer to him and leaned in. “But I think Bodhi might have an admirer,” she said, with the slightest of elbow jerks towards Luke. They both giggled, catching the other’s attention.

“What are you two talking about?” Bodhi asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Nothing!” they said, in unison.

Kay leaned over and whispered something to Bodhi and they both laughed, too.

The party ended when Baze stormed out of his own apartment, remembering two minutes later that he in fact lived there, returning and, with forced politeness, showed Chirrut the door. Baze made a rude face at him for no reason other than his own petty enjoyment, and slammed the door.

“Not a word from you,” he said, pointing menacingly to Jyn and Bodhi, who tried to play innocent.  Then he slammed his bedroom door and disappeared until everyone had left.

When it was just the three of them again, Jyn opened her gifts. They were standard but welcome; clothes, pillows, movies, an Amazon gift card, candy, and new shoes. There was a card from Cassian and Kay, and when she opened it, all it contained was Cass’s phone number.

The logic vexed her; she could get Cassian’s number from Bodhi, easily. The symbolism of the act was what was important, and she tried not to appear flustered as she shoved the card underneath the pile of gifts. Leia had gotten her a nice bath set that she was sure Bodhi would enjoy when he inevitably stole it from her. She had stopped stealing herself expensive soap before because one of them always ended up smelling like vanilla sunrise, or whatever, and it was rarely her.

“Luke seemed nice,” she said pointedly as she climbed into her bunk that night.

“Shut up,” Bodhi responded, muffled by his pillow.

\--

The following Monday, Jyn got home from work, expecting an empty apartment, as Bodhi had an exam that day that he was taking very seriously. Their school administrators had always been surprised by how seriously he’d taken school despite the trouble the two of them always stayed in.

So when she heard the shower going, she was perplexed.

“Baze?” she called, throwing down her bag.

The door swung open and it wasn’t Baze that walked out of his bedroom, but a Chirrut, allergic to shirts as ever. She turned red, thanked the force he couldn’t see that, and tried not to make a noise of shock.

“Hey Jyn.”

She couldn’t stop herself. “You two were having sex!” she exclaimed.

Baze was out of the shower now, very poorly covered by a towel. “We were not.”

Jyn covered her eyes. “I’m not ten anymore Baze! I know what post-coitus looks like.”

 “Well, not with your eyes covered,” Chirrut snarked. “Do we have to keep lying to them? They’re not blind.” He laughed at his own joke, Baze just groaned, and Jyn kind of understood why they were doing this on the down-low, so to speak. “Plus, we hadn’t done it yet today, you interrupted.”

“You’ve been doing this for a while?” she yelped. “And you didn’t tell us?!”

“I don’t see how it’s any of your business.”

“We’re family!”

Baze just made an irritated noise and she heard the bedroom door slam, and she knew she was safe to open her eyes again. Well, Chirrut was still half-naked, but he was not related to her.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “I’m just going to go so you two can keep…” She made a vague, wiggly hand gesture and excused herself from the apartment. Leia was working and Bodhi was taking his test, so she gritted her teeth and called Cassian.

He answered after a few rings. “Hello?”

“Hey.” Pause. “Oh, right, it’s Jyn. I just walked in on Chirrut and Baze mid-sex marathon, I think. Are you home?”

“Yeah, come on over,” he said. “Kay’s in class, got the place to myself.”

She walked over to Cassian’s apartment and knocked. He opened in still dressed in pajamas, looking ruffled and a little sleepy, his hair stuck to his forehead. “Hungry?” he asked.

She nodded, and got settled down on the couch (the blinds were mercifully tightly closed, so she couldn’t see her apartment and think about how it was being tainted). Cassian brought her a bowl of cereal, and turned on some cartoon movie he had clearly already been watching.

“Having a good day?”

“I mean, I got home to two naked guys in my apartment, so I guess it’s an average Monday.”

She enjoyed the sugary cereal and cartoon afternoon a lot more than she would expect to. Even though they had gotten off to a weird start, Cassian’s presence somehow felt soothing now, like they were supposed to be here.

“I’m not sure what you meant when you gave me your number,” she said, cautiously.

“Just thought you should have it,” he said evasively, stuffing his face full of Cap’n Crunch.

“We could go out sometime if you want to…” she said, and was oddly endeared by the milk he had to wipe off the corner of his mouth as he stared at the bowl of cereal as if it had been the one to just ask him on a date.

“Yeah. I mean. Would Bodhi --?”

“Bodhi doesn’t tell me who to date,” she said, laughing. “I mean. If you wanted it to be a date. We could just hang out.”

“A date is fine.”

\--

For some reason, she didn’t tell Bodhi about going on a date with Cassian, and since he didn’t mention it to her, she assumed Cassian had kept quiet about it too. She wasn’t sure why, she just didn’t want things to get weird. If the date was awful, they could just go back to being friends and everyone would be none the wiser.

(Of course, she had told Bodhi about Baze and Chirrut immediately, much to Baze’s irritation.)

They went to a little college bar that allowed under-21s inside. They ordered a plate of bacon cheese fries to share, and scoped out the rickety little pool table.

“Do you play?” she asked.

“Of course. I’m amazing.”

They pooled their quarters and staked out the tables once they had finished their food.

(“I had no idea someone so small could eat so much,” Cassian said, dissatisfied with the amount of fries he’d gotten.)

Cassian was as good as he said he was, but Jyn had learned how to play pool once she had gotten tall enough to see over the table, so they were very evenly matched.  A crowd started to form when Cassian, by dumb luck, won the first match. It was impressive.

People started making bets, and Jyn knew what was about to happen, because she had been a pool shark before, though it was cuter when a little kid did it.

She was having too much fun to stop, though, and let people bet her or Cassian. He goaded them expertly, and she taunted them subtly. After an hour, she wanted to stop, though, because it was veering dangerously towards the old scams.

So she backed off. Cassian was playing, so she walked to the bar to get herself a soda. Someone next to her offered to buy her something stronger, and she waved them off. “I don’t drink, would you get me some mozzarella sticks?” she asked innocently.

He just rolled his eyes and turned around. She took a water to Cassian, who had been drinking the drinks they’d won in their game.

He won, again, collected his winnings, and took the water.

“We should go,” she said.

“We’re having fun though!”

She frowned. “Really, let’s go get some real food or something,” she said, a little more insistently.

Cassian nodded, and they left the bar. “You don’t have to get to flustered around things like that.”

“I did just as well as you!” she snapped back. “I just don’t think we need to overstay our welcome when you start pulling stunts like that.”

“Stunts?” he asked, incredulous. “Being poor kind of necessitates stunts, Jyn. I’d think you’d understand.”

“I do understand,” she said hotly. “But I just want to play it safe. I just got out of jail and I don’t want to go back.” They stopped at a diner (not her own diner) and she ordered a mountain of French toast to placate her anger.

“I had fun,” Cassian said hesitantly. “I do like you.”

“I like you too,” she said, mouth full of whipped cream and bread. “But you’re insufferable.”

“So are you.”

\--

No one was home when they got there. They were already kissing by the time they hit the door to she and Bodhi’s room. She pushed it open without removing herself from Cassian’s embrace.

“Top bunk,” she said, pulling away just long enough to take a breath. They scrambled up the ladder and resumed their activities, they were too close to the ceiling for Cassian to do anything but lie on his back, so Jyn rolled on top of him, pulling off her shirt and then working on his. Even she nearly bashed her head on the ceiling.

Then the door flew open. Instinctively, she pulled the covers over both of them, a small sliver of light showing her brother as the intruder. Well, her brother with his face glued to someone else’s face. They disappeared onto the bottom bunk, and Jyn and Cassian were frozen in place.

The rustling of fabric and quiet kissing were all they heard, and Jyn tried to act like she wasn’t grossed out by hearing her older brother on a crash course to getting laid.

“What do we do?” Cassian mouthed.

“Wait for them to leave?” she replied.

“Ew!”

The silence between them was tense.

Until Cassian’s phone started ringing. Jyn rolled off him, the blanket crashing to the floor and Jyn herself nearly falling off as Bodhi yelped in surprise, jumping out of bed and looking at them, his eyes huge. He was shirtless and his hair had come out of its holder, Jyn was in her bra, and Cassian was on the phone with Kay.

“What in the hell?”

She covered herself with a pillow. “I thought you were going to be out all night!”

“I thought you were going to be out all night!” he repeated back at her. They were both red-faced and horrified.

Luke Skywalker very sheepishly exited the room, his shirt inside out. Bodhi hit his forehead against the railing of their bed, closing his eyes and swearing under his breath.

Cassian made his excuses, too, finding his shirt and departing, though not nearly as embarrassed as Luke had been.

It was clear that Bodhi and Jyn were not going to get laid that night, so they walked to the corner store, bought some ice cream to share, and marathoned some trashy reality TV for the rest of the night, both determined not to talk about the horrors they had just seen.

\--

“You could have told me you were boning Cassian,” he said the next morning.

“I haven’t boned Cassian, that was...I mean. We were getting there…” she said, blushing as she laced up her boots. She wasn’t sure how she felt – kissing her brother’s best friend. He was a good kisser and a good person, she knew that. She liked him.

“It’s okay by me. Cassian’s a good guy. And pretty hot,” he said, shrugging.

They smiled at each other. “And I won’t tell Leia you’re making out with her brother on the down low,” she said agreeably.

“Thank you. She is really scary,” he said, obviously daunted by the idea of coming around Luke’s vast and eccentric family. As if their family wasn’t already vast and eccentric enough. As if they weren’t used to such nonsense.

“You know, it’s been two months since you came home,” he said as they walked to the bus stop in the cool fall air. “And it’s been a great few months.”

“It really has,” she said. It felt like a lifetime ago that she had been away. It felt like she hadn’t missed anything at all, even though she knew she’d missed so much. She linked arms with her big brother and pressed her head into his shoulder for a second. “I’m really happy to be home.”

Jyn knew that Bodhi would always be there for her, her one constant in life.


End file.
